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Friday, March 31, 2017

We recently made a fun change in the sunroom. The left wall had previously had a green and white wallpaper on them, and I had painted right over the wallpaper as a quick fix last spring with Benjamin Moore Wales Gray. The lines where the strips met up were faintly visible, but not too badly. I kept thinking I would like to paint the wall white to brighten up the room, but I thought that would make the lines more obvious. When I saw the new textured Brick White wallpaper from our sponsor Tempaper Designs, I found the perfect solution.

I had already used their Gold Peonies wallpaper in Everly's room, so I was fairly used to the way it applies and on the second strip I started rolling right along...until I got to the window. My brain just doesn't want to measure and cut backwards. I have always had trouble measuring things anyway. When we built our house and I had to take a measurement for insulation or something for my husband to cut, I couldn't think past quarter inches, so I would yell "34 and a quarter and two babies!" (That is to say, it is a personal deficit, not a complaint about the wallpaper!) ;) Aside from my cutting inadequacies, it went on great, and the long cold stretch hasn't affected it at all. (The sunroom is essentially a sun porch; we don't heat it, although it gets warm on sunny afternoons even in the winter.)

It actually fooled someone who had been in the room before, so I consider that a success! On my husband's birthday we had family over, and I got called out to ask if the brick was painted when we moved in, or if I painted it afterwards. It has a nice texture to it that really imitates true brick. And as long as no one inspects my corners or underneath the window trim, we're all set! Having used it twice now, I have to say, it really is a great option if you don't want to pay someone to apply wallpaper, if you aren't going to stay in a place forever, or have some other reason that you may want to remove it down the line. It holds so well and doesn't look temporary at all, but I love knowing that I could remove it and try a completely new look with very little hassle. I am a big fan!

The first Blue Apron meal we made was the Melted Leek and Fontina Focaccia Pizza with Brussels Sprouts and Lemon Ricotta. Although I like Brussels Sprouts I was a little unsure if I was going to like them and the Leeks on my pizza but the way they mixed together brought out their natural sweetness and it was absolutely delicious. For the side there were carrots and parsnips that we roasted and finished off with a bit of honey and lemon juice. I have always been a huge fan of roasted carrots but have to admit I had never had roasted parsnips before and now I have to say I love them. The addition of the honey and lemon on them was the perfect touch.

I thought the prep for this meal was pretty easy. It was just some basic chopping and you were supposed to grate the cheese but I actually only grated some of it and then just cut it into thin slices which worked great too. One of my favorite things about Blue Apron is having all of the ingredients shipped right to our front door. It makes it so nice not having to worry about being short on an ingredient or having to make any extra trips to the grocery store.

Here is what it looked like before popping it into the oven:

And here is what it looked like all finished. I have to admit I did leaves the leaks and brussels sprouts off of Lillie and Lola's half and they devoured theirs. I thought it was absolutely delicious with the leaks and brussels sprouts and would make it again in a heartbeat. It's definitely high on my list!

This also was easy to prep and our whole family loved the chicken. It had such a great flavor and mixed really well with the noodles and broccoli.

So those were our latest two Blue Apron meals. I highly suggest trying the recipes!!!! We do the family plan but they also have a two person plan and they also now offer a recycling plan with two different options! One of my favorite things is that is really helps us get out of our cooking rut which I fall into quite easily and it also helps me branch out and try different things (like leaks and brussels sprouts on my pizza!) and I end up loving them.

If you have never tried Blue Apron before we highly recommend it. For the first 25 readers who use this discount code you can get three free meals on your first order!

I hope you all have an amazing Wednesday!

*This post was sponsored by Blue Apron. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Sunday, March 26, 2017

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I can't believe it's already over. I spent a good bit of my weekend getting our garage completely organized which was not a fun project and something I have been dreading but I am so happy to finally have that done - woohoo! And then I spent some time working on adding some finishing touches to our porch. Just waiting on two little details out there and then I will get that photographed - hopefully later this week. The girls bathroom remodel is also underway so we should have lots to share soon!

In the meantime I wanted to share some pictures of our master bathroom. I feel like this post needs to come with a little bit of background. This was one of the two spaces that the previous owner remodeled before putting the house on the market. The bathroom is by far the largest one we've ever had and I can't tell you how much we LOVE having a free-standing tub! That being said some of the finishes are a little more modern than I would have chosen - like the tub and sinks. And I would have removed the bulkhead above the sink area (which we probably still will do at some point) and a few other things as well. That being said it was so nice moving into a completely remodeled master bathroom and we are so grateful!

If we were starting from scratch I think I would have gone for a less feminine look and added some warmer wood tones to the room, and probably not have done the dark walls but because the floors, vanity, and counters were all so light I decided to go with dark walls to add some contrast (the walls were baby blue when we moved in). And because we will be completely making over the other two bathrooms I didn't want to spend really any money in here so I used some mirrors, draperies and other accessories we already owned.

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This chair was a little more french and feminine than I was looking for but I couldn't find what I had in mind and I kept seeing this one every time I went to HomeGoods. I had some gift cards so it didn't cost me anything so I ended up pulling the trigger on it eventually, and I have to say it is really comfortable! And I got the hand towels at Target on clearance for $3!

This cabinet ended up in our bedroom somehow on accident on moving day. It is pretty heavy so not something I could move on my own downstairs so I ended up sliding it into the bathroom and I think it will probably stay here now - haha! I has that same french/feminine feel I was trying to avoid in here but it is functional and free so that probably means it won't ever leave this spot - ha!

I also fully planned on painting over the chevron pattern on the back but clearly didn't get to that.

I made this little bathtub tray from a basic piece of wood (and it has two smaller pieces on the underneath side that keeps it from sliding off). Lillie and Lola think it's so much fun! Ha!

The shower and toilet are in here - and that's one of the two last remaining white doors in the house. I have to take that one down to paint it and just haven't gotten around to it yet.

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Source List:

Wall Color - Nightfall in Semi-Gloss by Benjamin Moore (it was supposed to be eggshell but got mixed wrong and I didn't notice until I had already been painting for an hour so decided just to go with it although I wouldn't purposely go with Semi-Gloss on walls)

Trim and Cabinets - Existing - will eventually be painted Simply White by Benjamin Moore